I think I was nearly scammed by a fake agent....

MikeyC123

Hi all,

I'd really appreciate people views on this. I have decided I would rent my house out privately and advertised on gumtree, in the local paper and online.

I had a phone call from someone stating they are a relocation agent for [Financial institution] Corporate and could the person (not him) come and look tomorrow. Yes was the answer and a pleasant lady came round the next day. I had the phone call shortly afterwards from the agent saying yes they would like the property, and looking to move quickly as they have been let down elsewhere.

The agent wants 2.5% for their services and has sent me the ladies husbands;

Copy of Passport [Foreign]
Copy of recent landlord address
2x PAYE slips
A recent Bank statement
A copy of a credit check apparently done by lettingref.com

My 6th sense told me something was not right and I checked the electoral role and the person is not listed at the address they allegedly were for 4 years (despite the red from lettingref saying they are). I then looked at the numbers on the PAYE slips and there are a few errors on those, finally a few dates don't add up. I have now contacted [Financial institution] to ask if person X with paye ref Y does indeed work for them in said role etc I'm expecting either no answer or a no.

What I dont know is if the prospective tenants are pulling the wool over the agents eyes or if the agent is in on it. Remember a lady actually came and looked around my house.

Obviously I'm going to stall for now, but is there any advice anyone can give me, should I challenge this agent (a firm I had never heard of it, it's just an email address and phone number and had several conversations and asked for no money up front) or should I contact the police, have any laws been broken ? On close scrutiny it appears many of the documents have been falsified/fabricated or are the result of identity theft, but something certainly doesn't add up.

Thanks for any advice :eek:

hcb42

looks very sus. Wow what a cheek.. have you pursued the bank statement with the bank....and if it isnt stacking up I would involve the police yes.

MikeyC123

Yes it does, 6th sense was sending alerts so went back over everything with a fine tooth combe, was about to move out for them to move in next week !! I will go to bank tomorrow with statement, phone the creditcheck company to ask if they did indeed do the check, call the Financial institution and ask to speak to said person, I think i will know by the end of that but end result I think I know already, always listen to your gut, if it sounds too good to be true.... Just wish I had taken vehicle reg of lady that came round to look at house, it may of heklped police as i;m sure the mobile number and email address will go dead as soon as I challenge it.

g_attrill

Are you able to check the details with lettingref.com? It might be that they can't help in any way, but they might be able to confirm whether any reference numbers match up with the name on the document. If the lettingref document is supposed to have been produced by the agent and is fake then they must be in on it.

Your employment check is obviously the best idea, although (giving them the benefit of the doubt) it might be that the employment is through a different department so they might not be able to confirm anything.

Either way, there are a few possible lines the scam could be running on:

- Tenant has poor credit or no job yet, but needs a property and will be paying for it, but needs to fake a few things
- Somebody needs it for criminal purposes, eg. credit card fraud drop address, bank scams, growhouse, a letting agent scam of their own etc (takes deposit as if they were letting it)
- Serial fraudster tenant - will move in and has no intention of paying rent, will be there until you evict.
- Tenant does not exist, the "agent" will ask for a fee before things are finalised and will then disappear.

Either way, using falsified documents to get accepted for a tenancy is fraud, although whether the police would be interested is another matter....

allybee101

The elecotral register isn't necessarily clear proof of whether someone has lived at a particular address or not.
I tick the box on the ER form to say I want to be on the private ER. This means that my name doesn't appear on the Electoral Role that's available for sale (one of the ways cold-callers/junk mailers get your details).
In addition, if they are not a British citizen/ have the right to vote I don't think that they would appear on the list (my knowledge here is not 100% so don't take my word for it.

End of the day, if your 6th sense is telling you something isn't right then you're doing the right thing by being cautious.
Check out the company on the internet - you might be able to find more information. If they're a Limited company, put their details into www.companieshouse.gov.uk - lists all registered companies and can be v useful!

MikeyC123

thanks, the comment on the lettingref.com supposed check says;

"Found on edited electoral register: YES"

not sure what an edited register is !?

Will let you know the outcome, just how far my 4x2 fits up the agents *&^% , I might just say I'd quite like to meet the couple and the agent before you rent it from me, lets meet for a coffee !!, take a couple of snaps of their faces and then hand it all over to press, they love stuff like this :-) rogue traders.

allybee101

MikeyC123 wrote: »

"Found on edited electoral register: YES"

not sure what an edited register is !?
.

Me neither!
Just looked it up:

The Edited Register

The edited register leaves out the names and addresses of people who have asked for them to be excluded from that version of the register. The edited register can be bought by anyone who asks for a copy and they may use it for any purpose.

(I'm on the excluded list to avoid those pesky sales people!).

Lettingref appears to be legit, have you done any research on the relocation agent? Ask for their T&Cs, by post - see if they've got headed paper, branded envelopes etc.
There are relocation agencies that help with employee relocations (not dealt with personally) so it could be genuine (or based on a genuine company) but if there's holes in the story you're right to be cautious.
Good luck and let us know how you get on!

Jowo_2

You should be undertaking your own thorough tenant screening -there are plenty of companies that undertake this. Act in haste, repent in leisure - you need to go through these checks at your own pace rather than have pressure placed on you.

Permanent accommodation not ready yet? Well, a relocation agent can find them interim accommodation at the drop of a hat.

Someone who has gone to the trouble of faking their docs, will have also set up fake references, too, getting their pals to pretend to be their former landlord and current employer.

Surely you should be able to verify their employer by finding the switchboard number and getting through to their HR dept, and also verify the letting agent ref?

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/tenant_screening.htm

http://www.tenantverify.co.uk/international-credit-checks.htm

http://www.tenantverify.co.uk/comprehensive.htm

Gumtree is notorious for scammers (though few actually turn up in person to perpetuate it) and professional tenants are notorious for targetting private landlords, hoping that their tenant screening will be inadequate or not undertaken at all.

Check on the Gumtree forums if this is a new scam, because if it is, it's a lot more sophisticated than those that usually take place, such as those seeking property to turn into a cannabis farm. Here's a thread where tenants are complaining of a fake letting agent. Presumably the 'agents' also tricked the landlord to get a scammer installed in the property.

http://forums.gumtree.com/viewtopic.php?t=268781

MikeyC123

Wise Words Jowo.


As it goes I was always planning on doing my own checks but here was the outcome of today;


I called the Financial Institution and they had no contact for said person, got friends to check internal global list of financial institution and tenant is not employed there. I spoke to lettingref.com and whilst on the phone to her I forwarded the letting/tenant check I had been provided with, she opened it and said, ah yes that's one of ours ! I said hang on a minute couldn't someone just do a genuine one and then use PDF editor to change the names and fields, she said yes I suppose so, and I asked her to check if this agent had actually run a check or if the tenants name had passed through their system, as expected the answer was "no" and she was very surprised by this and would be raising it internally. I had also spoken to the police who actually seemed interested in it all, enough so as to refer to supervisor and then came back wanting more details and gave me some crime incidence number and I would be told if it warrants further investigation.


I couldn't resist it so I then called this so called agent back from a withheld number 4 times and no answer, I then used the number he had for me and he answered straight away, I said that unfortunately there appears to be some fabrication in the document that have been passed to me, perhaps you should take this up with the tenant, but for the time being I'm no longer interested in these tenants and asked him to let me know once he had an explanation. I didn't threaten or get agro as I don't want the number to be cut off or the address he wanted me to send stuff to stop being used should th epolice decide to investigate.

I just thought I'd let you know.

Mischa8

I thought I saw a similar post to this about a week or two ago here.

I suppose another scam we need to watch out for.

Jowo_2

I believe that tenants have been prosecuted for producing fake documentation in support of a tenancy application.

It seems a fairly rare thing for the police to take action - the Police have a reputation (don't know how fair) of dismissing tenant/landlord issues as a civil matter (breach of contract) rather than criminal.

Therefore I wonder if you'll need to persue it for them to take action or whether they would be very interested in tracking down people posing as agents and tenants for nefarious reasons.

A friend suspected her previous lodger of applying for credit in false names and when she contacted the companies who were sending rejection letters for accounts, they said it wasn't against the law to apply for goods/services in a name that wasn't their own but it was against the law to receive them. (Sorry, I may have mis-remembered this, my memory is terrible).

Perhaps you could let Gumtree admin know and post the scenario in their Admin forum where people list the many scams that take place there.

I wonder what the scammers plans were - to sublet it to other tenants without paying you? to pretend they are the landlord of the property and rip off multiple prospective tenants for their deposits and first months rent? to fit it out as a cannabis farm? to steal your identity and get a fraudulent secured loan on it?

Were they eastern european, Nigerian or Chinese/Vietnamese or British? The reason I ask is that some of the threads I came across on the Gumtree and posted here reported by tenants involved an eastern european couple posing as agents, plus there's some audacious stuff here

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/property/the-flat-that-never-was-how-the-rental-market-became-an-attractive-target-for-fraudsters-2131753.html

http://forums.gumtree.com/viewtopic.php?t=214968&p=2673832

I recall one thread on the Gumtree where a guy rented a posh short-term apartment in a portered block for a week or two and fleeced lots of tenants by posing as the landlord.

I also recall the story in the newspapers of a teacher who went to work overseas who owned his property outright. His tenant, who never lived there and was never traced, got hold of the deeds and remortgaged it and disappeared with the funds.

http://www.rla.org.uk/landlord/magazine/rpi/rpi_06jf_conman.shtml